Fake products are easy to spot, says health department

The national health department says the one way to identify fake foods is by looking at their colour.

The department's food control director Penny Campbell said consumers would be able to do this easily with see-through products like soft drinks, adding that the colour would differ from the original to become lighter or darker due to the incorrect additives used to manufacture the fake product.

“You might see things that you are not used to seeing in normal products... [Different drinks] have a specific colour and sometimes it [fake] can be lighter or darker. This is because often they [fake drink producers] don't put in the correct additives that would put it at the same standard as the original,” said Campbell.

Police and various stakeholders, including health officials, have been visible on the ground and conducting raids at spaza shops for inspection and seizing illicit goods.

Campbell said another way to verify products is by looking at the labelling. 

“One may be able to see a fake if the [colour] isn't quite right or there's a spelling error or the logo of the product may not be placed correctly.

“...The industry has what we call a GS1 processing of bar coding products. [Companies]  register their bar codes and they would have a distinct identity and when somebody scans the code, they could determine whether the bar code is a Tiger Brand bar code or if it's a fake,” said Campbell. 

She said another thing consumers can do to verify whether the products are fake is to check the credibility of the place they bought them from.

“The best thing is to know where exactly you are buying the food, whether that premise has a certificate of acceptability which means that it's been inspected by the health inspectors in those municipalities. If the premises doesn't have the certificate, that means they are operating illegally and that shop was not visited by an inspector to check the products being sold there,” said Campbell.

Sowetan recently reported the dire shortage of environmental health inspectors in Gauteng with the City of Joburg saying there is one official responsible for checking food sold to every 26,000 people in the area.

Tshwane also reported a shortage, saying this led to the city prioritising high risk areas.

The Gauteng Counterfeit and Contraband Goods Task Team on Saturday destroyed illicit goods seized from some shops. 

Police minister Bheki Cele said the contrabands and illicit goods were a problem.

“We are facing an economic sabotage where the illegal criminals are taking over the economy of the country. The products that are to be destroyed today are worth R3bn in market value and it’s affecting everyone. This is an economic cancer that is eating the growth of the country,” said Cele.

According to the SA Revenue Service annual report 2022/23, in the past year, authorities completed 270 investigations into illegal economic activities amounting to billions.

Tax Justice for SA founder Yusuf Abramjee said a lot of illicit goods were smuggled through “our porous borders where corruption and weak enforcement is rife”.  

“But many are made within the country at factories which can operate thanks to the collusion of rogue officials and a lack of political will to enforce regulations and prosecute offenders. Illicit trade is forcing legitimate businesses to close and robbing hard-working South Africans of honest jobs.

“If lawmakers are at all concerned about the prosperity of our nation and preventing organised crime kingpins from seizing control of another key commercial sector. They should ditch the tobacco bill and start cracking down on real villains,” said Abramjee.

mashalek@sowetan.co.za